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Study Finds White-Collar Unemployment Spreading

Updated, 3:55 p.m. | Well-paid professionals like lawyers and architects are joining the rapidly expanding unemployment rolls in New York City, according to a new unemployment study.The report, released by the Fiscal Policy Institute, shows that the effects of the financial crisis have spread well beyond Wall Street to other white-collar jobs, as well as construction, retail and service jobs.

The number of white-collar workers outside the financial industry receiving unemployment checks has increased by more than 40 percent and the number of college graduates collecting benefits is up by 50 percent in the city since last year, the report shows.

Although the nation has been losing jobs since the start of this year, New York City’s job market remained strong into the summer, according to the report, which is based on data compiled by the federal and state Labor Departments. As recently as July, the number of new claims for unemployment benefits in the city was only about 10 percent higher than it had been a year earlier.

But unemployment claims have been rising rapidly, portending an “upsurge” in the city’s unemployment rate in coming months, said James Parrott, the institute’s chief economist and author of the report.

According to the state’s figures, the city has lost about 10,000 jobs since employment peaked in August. A report on the condition of the job market in the city and state in November is due to be released next week.

Most forecasts of the effects of the financial crisis project that the city will lose more than 150,000 jobs during this recession. The report estimates that job losses will average about 10,000 a month from November 2008 through the end of 2009.

The layoffs are following a traditional recessionary pattern by radiating out from the big financial companies to other professional services and to lower-paying businesses like retailing, according to the report, which is based on a breakdown of the latest data available from the state labor department.

The number of unemployment beneficiaries who worked in professional, technical and scientific services was 6,428 in October, up 42 percent from October 2007. That total — which includes the fields of law, accounting, consulting and engineering — exceeded the 5,935 beneficiaries who worked in finance and insurance, the report shows. The number of blue-collar beneficiaries was up 50 percent, driven by a jump in laid-off construction workers.

Mr. Parrott said that the figures understate how severe the unemployment situation is because many laid-off workers have not yet started collecting checks and many others do not qualify for benefits. In October, fewer than one-third of the 225,000 unemployed residents of New York City were collecting benefits, he said.

No dah, this started happening back in 1994 and worsened after 9/11 when outsourcing everything to India and China and Russia began. All of my friends have college degrees, as do I, and all of us have been unemployed for years. In fact it’s so bad I’m considering moving to Europe to teach English and that way I’ll get medical benefits and I’ll give up my American citizenship.

The situation is FAR worse than quoted here. Think of the numbers of consultants who cannot collect unemployment and whose loss of work doesn’t get measured anywhere. Think of all the discouraged looking for work professionals who’ve exhausted their benefits and aren’t being counted. This city is about to be in BIG trouble.

When the economy starts to rebound will companies out-source all their employment needs again? And will Congress increase the number of work visas so hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers from off-shore can come into the country to take jobs at salaries that native Americans can’t afford? In short, will a better economy help Americans or non-Americans more?

Obama is about to take over the worst economy since the Great Depression. The auto industry looks doomed, and it reaches into every state. People’s investments are going down. NY will be reeling for years to come. The ripple-effect of the collapse of major industries reaches far and wide, and far too many people don’t understand that. The offical unemployment figure does not take into account people who have taken full-time jobs that pay less, people who could not find full-time jobs and took part-time jobs instead, nor does it include the people who have given up looking for work but will reenter the workforce when things pick up. People have cut back and will continue to do so. The official unemployment figure is expected to be close to 9% by the end of next year. I have no faith in the U.S. economy to rebound for years.

Not everyone employed in the financial sector is rich. Many make modest incomes. The financial sector does create jobs that allow people to buy things, which helps keep other people employed who do make things.

For your information, the manufacturing sector has been under siege for decades. No TV’s are made in this country. Have you read about much of our American-made cars are made in Third World countries? Have you read about how much of our manufacturing sector has been outsourced? Is really a good idea to take a job in an industry that has seen nothing but job losss for decades?

I’m glad someone is finally paying attention to this. To me, blue collar jobs are not the bellweather measurement of how the economy is doing. But when accountants, lawyers, marketing executives and other white collar workers start getting laid off in large numbers, then you know large corporations are really hurting. These are folks going from making 6 figures to collecting unemployment. It’s not that they’re more important people or anything like that, but when auto workers get laid off in droves, it does not come as a huge shock, because it happens every so often, even in the best of times. When big firm lawyers get laid off by the hundreds, it makes you realize things are pretty bad.

Well for years they ran Voodoo Economics, shipping blue collar jobs overseas and importing cheap labor, so now they wonder why the foundations of the economy can’t support them anymore.

Once a Human Resource Manager lays everybody off there’s nothing left for him to do. Once people stop having incomes, tax consultants don’t have any clients. After bankers looted everybody’s money with exhorbitant fees and interest and mortgages, there’s no money left to put in the banks. The New Economy of just service jobs doesn’t work if there’s nothing of intrinsic value being produced that can be used as collateral.

The reason behind this depression/recession is that we haven’t made anything tangible since the late 1960s.

How much possible value can a service add?

When I came here from Seattle, I noticed the parallels with New York. Seattle’s Biggest Employer, Boeing, determined the economy of the Puget Sound area (until Microsoft showed up in 1980 or so.)

New York’s economy isn’t diversified enough to spring back from a decimation of the financial industry. I think we will be the next Detroit because of this. Housing will never command the premium it did only two years ago. If the outsize economic opportunities do not exist only in NY, maybe the costs of living in this area can then become less ‘out-of-whack’ from the rest of the country.

Yup, and it’s not just New York. If construction workers are out of work, that means architects, landscape architects, structural, civil, electrical and mechanical engineers, product representatives, CAD trainers, and illustrators are out of work. All over the country. Those of us who have given up looking for work (6 months and 100 resumes later) don’t really know what to do next. We trained a long time to be professionals… and the professions are disappearing.

EJ (#13) Corporations are laying off so many people because greedy management have run them into the ground.

Wall Street firms pedalled toxic securities through the financial system. Banks gave out easy credit and subprime mortgages. Describing the Ponzi scheme is too long for a post. It has all backfired on people. The few have made out like bandits. Those sandwiched in between those who pedalled the junk and the dummies who cannot handle money are the savers and investors, who are watching their hard-earned money going down the drain.

Although I am not in the manufacturing sector, I have respect for it. Those employed in it work, pay taxes, put money back into the economy, which in turn keeps other people working. There is a contempt for those who work in manufacturing. Your attiude is,”so what if labor gets the pink slip.” You sound like someone who has felt immune. Everyone is dispensible. I am a professional person myself, and I do not feel immune to what is happening in the economy. My parents taught my brother and me not to be cocky.

If the brige loans to the U.S. auto industy, EJ, don’t come, GM and Chrysler will almost certainly file for bankruptcy, barring some last minute change, and you and everyone else, including myself, will feel the impact of at least one million more people collecting unemployment. Those people won’t be buying beyond the necessities. If the industry implodes, some estimate that up to 3 million people will lose jobs. We can all watch the stock and bond market go down, down, down, down. Yes, EJ, the Dow can be at 5,000, 4,000, 3,000. Not long ago it was over 14,000.

Those auto workers who get laid off in droves are people just like you or me. They have financial commitments, families, retirements to worry about. It amazes me how callous some people can be about other people’s employment, but they certainly start to get worried when it encroaches on their own turf.

Lawyers are being laid off because the firms decided they can be done without.

The following can be explained: “Although the nation has been losing jobs since the start of this year, New York City’s job market remained strong into the summer, according to the report, which is based on data compiled by the federal and state Labor Departments.” Many who work and live in New York City make good money and don’t have to pursue unemployment checks. Many “choose” to live off savings and investments. Those individuals (and there are many in New York City given the cost of living and the median household income in the city) do not make it into the data. Do not let data tell you that employment has not been negatively impacted or that employment was “strong” even going into the summer.

I graduated from a tier 1 law school in 2001. Since graduation, I’ve had 3 full time jobs at which I was underemployed. I’ve done temp attorney work (the menial and debilitating discovery work, and depending on which big law firm it is, demeaning as well) twice during this time and have been unemployed 3 times for a total of 18 months up to the present day. The sad part is, I went to law school, (instead of getting a PhD in English Literature) so that I would have job security. I have felt the effects of 9/11, the outsourcing and offshoring of jobs, the number of overqualified candidates all applying for the same position, ever since I graduated but have not been given a solid plan on how this turmoil will help me pay back my gargantuan student loans.

This is the newest version of the so called American dream, or you might rather call it American nightmare. You go to college, study hard, borrow thousands of dollars in student loans (program supported by government). Then you graduate, your debt is sky high. But NO JOB ! What do you do then ?

Among induxtrialized countries only American students experience situation like this. In other countries education is free !!!

Is this supposed to be a leading country in the world ? Or perhaps a lame, lagging country in the world ?

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